Fire damages Hillsboro apartments

A fire apparently started by a malfunctioning electric wheelchair damaged six units at the Rolling Green Apartments in Hillsboro around midnight on Dec. 27.

All of the residents in the apartments were displaced. The resident in the apartment where the fire started was hospitalized for smoke inhalation

According to Hillsboro Fire and Rescue, at 12:29 a.m, Engine 2 was dispatched to the apartments at 2206 S.E. 44th Ave. When the crew arrived, they found smoke coming through a second floor window. The crew entered the building and discovered that the fire had been extinguished by the buildings automatic sprinkler system.

Additional arriving crews began checking each of the apartments to make sure that no one was injured. Other firefighters began clearing the smoke from the room where the fire began and removing water from the first and second floors.

The person living in the apartment where the fire started was treated on the scene for smoke inhalation and transported by Metro West Ambulance to a local hospital for further treatment.

Investigators from the Hillsboro Fire Department determined that the fire was caused by an electric wheel chair. The fire was contained to the room where it started.

Six of the apartments on the first and second floor were damaged by water from the sprinkler. A Hillsboro Fire Department Chaplain and the apartment manager worked with a local care home facility to provide overnight shelter for the residents of the water damaged apartments.

There was no immediate estimate of property damage. A total of 24 firefighters from Hillsboro Fire and Rescue and Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue responded to the fire.